1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material and a method of processing this light-sensitive material. More particularly, the invention relates to a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material containing a novel timing DIR compound and a yellow-colored cyan coupler, and also to a method of processing this light-sensitive material.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a demand for a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material which has high light-sensitivity and excels in sharpness, color reproduction and graininess, which has photographic properties little changing after it has been exposed to light until it is developed, and which can be manufactured at low cost.
As the means to improve the sharpness and color reproduction of such a light-sensitive material, a timing DIR coupler which releases a development-inhibiting compound through two timing groups is known. DIR couplers of this type are disclosed in, for example, JP-A-60-218645 ("JP-A" means Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application), JP-A-61-156127, JP-A-63-37346, JP-A-1-219747, JP-A-1-280755, JP-A-2-230139, Laid-open European Patent Application 348139, Laid-open European Patent Application 354532, and Laid-open European Patent Application 403019. The use of a timing DIR coupler indeed enhances inter-layer effect or edge effect, and improves sharpness and color reproducibility to some extent. However, unless the coupler releases the development-inhibiting compound in an amount sufficient to inhibit development, neither the inter-layer effect nor the edge effect can be sufficient. Further, there are some problems that desirable inter-layer effect cannot be attained if a light-sensitive layer to be inhibited is not developed to same extent or is difficult to develop. Consequently, no sufficient inter-layer effect can be achieved at various layers forming the light-sensitive material, or on all light-exposed portions of the light-sensitive material. In some cases, although inter-layer effect is attained, the coupler-added layers and the adjacent layers have their light-sensitivities decreased, leading to soft gradiation. Further, it has also found that the fog of the light-sensitive material is increased during storage.
The light-sensitive material disclosed in, for example, JP-A-1-319744, and JP-A-61-221748, which contains couplers similar to the yellow-colored cyan coupler of the present invention, is known to have good color reproduction due to the effect which is similar to the above-mentioned inter-layer effect. However, the use of those couplers alone cannot serve to achieve their effect sufficiently on all light-exposed portions of the light-sensitive material. Further, the yellow-colored cyan coupler, hitherto known, is disadvantageous in that the molar extinction coefficient of its yellow dye is small and the coupling activity, thereof is also low.